Guitar
Maker
Domenico Sellas
Date1670 ca.
Place MadeVenice, Italy, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedLater signature engraved and filled with black ink on mother-of-pearl diamond on head: 1511 / Domenico Sellas / alla Corona in / Venetia
Markingsdecoration- see attached description
DescriptionThis seventeenth century Venetian guitar has been modified several times over the centuries. Its neck has been shortened, a common modification of the eighteenth century for conversion to a chitarra battente, and then converted back to gut strings. It is not playable in its current configuration, since the inlaid frets do not correspond to the string length, so its most recent use was as a decorative object.
Top: two-piece spruce: fine grain broadening to medium at the edges, wood of top extends 68 mm over neck
Back: 17 fluted rosewood ribs divided by wide ivory strips and lined with medium-grain quarter-cut spruce
Ribs: 5 fluted rosewood ribs divided by wide ivory strips; lower ribs divided by fluted rosewood pieces and rosewood and ivory strap loop; remains of five metal pins in near top for metal strings; hole below current string holder loop from original strap button
Head: seven-ply rosewood and ivory with rosewood outer faces; festooned outline; back face inlaid with ebony and engraved ivory flower, vine, and human figure marquetry surrounded by three ply ivory and ebony strip trim; rosewood and ivory strap loop affixed to upper back of head; front face inlaid with engraved and black ink filled floral and crown mother-of-pearl diamonds and triangles divided by three ply ebony and rosewood and ivory strip trim; head appears later
Neck: drastically shortened when instrument was converted to chittara battente; veneered with ebony and ivory floral, vine, and human figure marquetry
Fingerboard: inlaid with engraved mother-of-pearl diamonds and triangles with floral and human designs; divided and surrounded by three-ply ebony and ivory strip trim; bound with ebony; flush with soundboard; seven later brass bar frets and five later rosewood frets; neck heel probably later, does not extend to back
Nut: rosewood; thin
Bridge: later rosewood tie bridge with integral saddle; late brown-stained hardwood vine moustaches; original bridge position 36 mm higher
Pegs: ten later ebony with concave faces and integral pins
Rose: later brown-stained hardwood cut rose with circle and star motifs
Rosette: mother-of-pearl plate and diamond and square inlay, with circle around edge of rose, bound in black painted hardwood with ivory and ebony strip, and two interlocking sets of six-part half circles
Linings: linen at joint between ribs and back; thin softwood linings, grain parallel to grain of sounboard, at joint with top (7mm high, 2 mm thick)
Neck block: roughly rectangular softwood (1.8 cm deep at center, 8cm wide) with vertically oriented grain angled at 45 degrees; central 8 cm nail and two flanking 4.5 cm screws with flat slot heads at an angle convering on central nail, oriented in same plane as the nail; position of screws and nail 1.1-1.4 from the soundboard
End block: spruce (1cm deep at center, 9.4cm wide); grain orientation at around 45 degrees; narrow grain
Top braces: three spruce ladder braces; top brace above soundhole, grain parallel to plane of soundboad, deep and narrow with tapered concave ends (2.8cm high,), brace below sound hole wih tapered concave ends, grain running parallel to plane of top, brace too short for dimensions of guitar on treble side (1.4mm high); lower bout brace, probably at original bridge position, tapered rounded ends, grain running diagonal t plane of top (1.1cm high)
Back braces: four evenly spaced spruce ladder braces with slightly tapered, concave ends; brace closest to neck block does not extend to rib on bass side, grain runs parallel to plane of back (1cm high), 2nd brace, grain diagonal to plane of back (1.2 cm high), 3rd brace wide grain parallel to plane of back (1.1 cm high); 4th brace with grain diagonal to plane of back (1.1 cm)
Top decoration: vine and heart inlay at upper and lower parts of top comprised of mother-of-pearl hearts and three-ply ebony and ivory strips (lower) and five ply dark hardwood and ebony and ivory strips (top); black mastic-filled half circles next to some areas of vines.
DimensionsTotal guitar length: 955 mm
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge edge): 684 mm
Back length: 477 mm
Upper bout width: 222 mm
Waist width: 180 mm
Lower bout width: 266 mm
Rib height (including edging), heel: 105 mm
Rib height, waist: 108 mm
Rib height, end block: 117 mm
Head length: 191 mm
Head width, top: 107 mm
Head width, bottom: 51 mm
Neck length (nut to ribs): 302 mm
Neck width, nut: 49 mm
Neck width, heel: 58 mm
Soundhole diameter: 86 mm
ProvenanceWurlitzer-Bruck purchased guitar from J. & A. Beare, London, 1976.
Purchased in 1984 from Wurlitzer-Bruck, New York, New York.
Published References“Rare, Beautiful Guitar Evokes the Splendor That Was 17th-Century Venice,” Shrine to Music Museum, Inc. Newsletter 12, No. 1 (October 1984), p. 3.
André P. Larson, “Early Italian Plucked Stringed Instruments at the Shrine to Music Museum,” Lute Society of America Newsletter Vol. XX, No. 1 (February 1985), p. 9.
Margaret Downie Banks, "The Witten-Rawlins Collection and Other Early Italian Stringed Instruments at The Shrine to Music Museum," Journal of the Violin Society of America 8, No. 3 (1987), pp. 23, 25, 26 (photo).
André P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 51 and inside cover.
Joseph R. Johnson, “The Witten-Rawlins Collection of North Italian String Instruments,” American Lutherie 15 (1988), reprinted in The Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Vol. 2 (1988-1990), edited by Tim Olson (Tacoma, Washington: Guild of American Luthiers, 2000-2004), pp. 100-102.
Credit LineArne B. and Jeanne F. Larson Fund, 1984
Object number03346
On View
Not on view
